Word: arabia
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...journey of geography as an odyssey across the ummah - the global community of Muslims. The scope of the images - from the ultra-contemporary fashion shoots of Turkey to the primal Ashura rituals in Iraq, the artificial ski slopes of Dubai to the sea of pilgrims keeping vigil on Saudi Arabia's plain of Arafat - reveals the ummah not as a monolithic body of believers, but a complex collection of individuals each subscribing to Islam in different ways, their breadth and diversity impossible to capture in a single frame...
...attempts by Karzai to reach out to Taliban leaders fizzled largely because the Taliban wanted a third-party to act as go-between. The President either sent his brother or a few Taliban defectors who were distrusted by their former jihadi comrades. Mullah Omar broke off talks through Saudi Arabia several months ago, saying that the Taliban would only talk with Karzai once all foreign troops had agreed to withdraw from Afghanistan. Taliban experts say that, if anything, the fraud-tainted elections have damaged Karzai's standing so badly that the Taliban and their supporters in Pakistan no longer...
...Finally, as the ICG report also pointed out, there's the worrisome specter of foreign funding, which appears to have been a crucial ingredient in the July bombings. In particular, Indonesian police are zeroing in on possible money flows from Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The increased integration of Indonesian terror into a global network will make it harder for even the most diligent of Indonesian anti-terror task forces to monitor extremist Islamic activity at home - despite the reported demise of a man as influential as Noordin Mohammed...
...sultanate soon became one of the most powerful in Southeast Asia, commanding a vast spice- and mineral-trading empire. While much of Indonesian Islam is syncretic, mixing traditional local beliefs with the imported faith, Aceh's belief system is generally far closer to the orthodox form practiced in Saudi Arabia, where the law of the land is based on Shari...
...Pakistan's weak civilian government also views Iranian influence as a potential foil to that of Saudi Arabia, which has stronger ties with the opposition. Government officials privately accuse the Saudis of being prejudiced toward Zardari because of his Shi'ite background. (Shi'ites are an embattled minority in Saudi Arabia, whose dominant Wahabi strand of Islam deems them heretics.) But Pakistan's response to Iran will ultimately be determined by the all-powerful military establishment. And, analysts say, the army is a great deal more wary of Iran's regional aspirations. "They are not really allies," says Christine Fair...